Sounding the River.

July 5. 

P. M. — To Ball's Hill, sounding river.

JULY 5, 2015

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Many a farmer living near the river will tell you of some deep hole which he thinks the deepest in all the river, and which he says has never been sounded (which may have been true, and hence its reputation), where he has chanced to fish, or possibly bathed, or somebody has been drowned. It only need to be considerably over his head to acquire this reputation. If you tell him you have sounded it, and it was not very deep, he will think that you did not find the right spot. 

The deep places in the river are not so obvious as the shallow ones and can only be found by carefully probing it. So perhaps it is with human nature. Fair Haven Pond, though not very deep generally, is a kind of deep hole, to be referred to Fair Haven and Lee's Cliff, etc. The deepest part of the river is generally rather toward one side, especially where the stream is energetic. On a curve it is generally deepest on the inside bank, and the bank most upright.

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H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 5, 1859

See April 16, 1852 ("[Concord River is a] succession of bays . . . a chain of lakes,. . . There is just stream enough for a flow of thought; that is all. . . . Many a foreigner who has come to this town has worked for years on its banks without discovering which way the river runs.")